Multi-award-winning author Tina Ruiz writes under the name of
Tina Griffith for her romance novels, and under Tina Nykulak Ruiz, her real
name, to honor her children and grandchildren, as well as her deceased and
current husbands. All of her novels are sold worldwide, and can be found
on Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Chapters, The Owl’s Nest, Barnes and
Noble, and many other book venues with less popular names.
When she isn’t writing, she is cooking, baking, or taking
writing and language courses, as well as spending as much time as she can with
her family.
Tina shares with us a bit of her
culture and an intriguing backstory of her writing career. She tells us, “Over
the years, I’ve made small changes to my mother’s recipe for streusel (coffee
cake), but it remains the same, for the most part. While my mom places sliced
plums on top of the batter, I often substitute plums with cherries, apples, or
peaches. In the end, nothing beats my mother’s cooking. The recipe is as
follows:
Blend the following topping ingredients
with a fork, leaving the mixture crumbly, and set it aside:
½ cup of brown sugar
½ cup of grated granola or rolled oats
(optional)
¼ cup of sifted all-purpose flour
¼ cup of soft, room temperature butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Cake ingredients:
1 ½ cups of sifted all-purpose flour
2 ½ teaspoons of baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 egg, well-beaten
¾ cups white sugar
1/3 cup of slightly frozen butter (shred
the butter before adding it)
½ cup of white milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Mix all the dry ingredients together. In
a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients together, and then add the wet to the
dry, stirring slowly. When blended, place the batter into a well-greased 8
or 9 inch square cake pan and cover it with the topping mixture. Or, fancy it
up a bit by placing fresh sliced fruit or fruit pie filling on top of the
batter, and then finish it by covering it with the topping mixture.
Bake at 375 for 25 to 30 minutes, or until
a toothpick comes out clean of soft batter. Let cool for a few minutes and
serve slightly warm.”
Tina continues, “I was born in Germany and
migrated to Canada in the early 1960's. I was then a German youngster
entering primary school having to learn the required English and French as
quickly as possible. By Grade 3, English and reading became two of my passions.
By Grade 7, I was writing elaborate stories about my life in my new country, as
well as the people, the culture, the food, and my new friends. In Grade
10, my English teacher was so thrilled by my homework assignment, a poem, that
he asked his editor friend to put it into the local newspaper. He agreed,
and that was the first time I was published. From then on, I was hooked on
writing.
“When my babies came, I wrote stories for
them, and by way of a friend, they came to the attention of a man in Ontario who
worked for the Canada Board of Education. He not only placed more than a dozen
of my stories into readers for the schools across Canada, he also put me in
touch with a Writing Course for Children, so that I could learn how to better
my craft.
“Sadly, my husband of 25 years passed away in
March of 2003, a devastating occurrence in my life that left me terribly grief
stricken. My shattered heart still had all of my love for my husband sitting in
its pit with no place to put it. I turned to journaling, recording my thoughts
and feelings, as a means of healing. Three years later, I shared some of the
contents with a friend. She liked my writings so much that she sent it to a
publisher.
“After completing several writing courses and
reading critiques that almost broke my heart, I now have 12 novels and 30
children’s books under my belt. Each novel was written with undertones of
romance, but they also include other elements such as witches, murder, mystery,
intrigue, suspense, and of course, powerful raw emotion. Why don’t I stick
to one genre? I want to expand my boundaries and go beyond my comfort zone.
“I remarried in August of 2011, and my new
husband asked if I could write one book without killing anyone. While that
made me laugh, I took it as a challenge and came up with “The Elusive Mr.
Velucci.” That particular story was inspired by a musical video called “Caruso,”
which a friend of mine sent me. The Lara Fabian rendition broke my heart and
made me want to find out more about Enrico Caruso, the famous opera
singer. Once I learned all I could about his life and how he died, I took
that sadness and put it into the pages of my new book.
“Lucio Dalla wrote the actual song, but many people have sung it
since then. It’s so powerful and sad, that even when I read the story,
which I wrote, tears flowed down my cheeks.
“While I loved writing this heartbreaking, very romantic love story,
my roots returned to drama and death in 2019, with Ophelia’s Curse.
“It is 2020 now, and I have just finished writing my 30th children’s
book. And before you ask, yes, it has the same Halloween theme as last
year’s book. I’ve also finished writing 208 pages on a new novel, and this
one has a Christmas theme. That season is not my favorite time of year,
because I’ve had a lot of people die between December 23-26, but it is my
husband’s. I’ve decided to honor him by writing an incredible love story
about a woman who loses her love for Christmas, but gets it back five years
later, after she meets a man who has the ability to heal her broken heart.”
https://www.amazon.com/Elusive-Mr-Velucci-Tina-Griffith/dp/1546237070/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1591714533&sr=8-2
to my wife and
daughter on what I consider the copious charms and hallowed history of the
ancient citadel of Quebec, at the gateway of Canada, overlooking the mighty St.
Lawrence River. My wife and daughter indulged me, as they do always, and listened
with great attention while I regaled them with the exploits of British Major
General James Wolfe and his seize of Quebec from the French in 1759. Both Montcalm,
the French commander, and Wolfe were mortally wounded in the battle. The
outcome was France’s ceding most of its territory in eastern North America at
the Treaty of Paris in 1763. It paved the way for Great Britain to emerge as
the world’s leading colonial power and for Wolfe to be forever remembered by
the British as the ‘Hero of Quebec.’ His immortal declaration reads: ‘Who at
the Expence of his Life, purchas’d immortal Honour for his Country, and planted
with his own Hand, the British Laurel, in the inhospitable Wilds of North
America, By the Reduction of Quebec, Septr. 13th, 1759.’ The time is
nigh to plant the British Laurel once more, this time in Germany, at Hitler’s
front door.
